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Shocker: Government Plan to Fix Economy With Inflation Not Working

This CNBC article explains: The Fed’s bid to lower long-term interest rates on home mortgages and corporate debt is already running into trouble. In the aftermath of last Wednesday’s announcement that it would buy back $300 billion of 2-10 year Treasury securities, yields on benchmark 10-year notes were cut 51 basis points, from 3.02 percent […]

Nice Review of Woods

This CBS review of Tom’s new book Meltdown is really good. I don’t just mean, that I agree with guy, but I’m also saying objectively, he is very well-read for someone who gets a CBS spot. I think the Internet is really opening up the floodgates in terms of nuanced analysis.

Reading God’s Book

In this post, I merely want to note the point that the existence of an omnipotent being who created the structure of reality–and who moreover is reputed to have an actual personality and enjoys interacting with humans–well that’s by far the most important aspect of your belief system. How you answer that question fundamentally influences […]

My Prediction Coming True Moments After I Make It

In the previous post, I said it would not be hard to imagine the government taxing the heck out of hedge funds that hadn’t taken a dime of bailout money. Well, von Pepe just sent me this NYT article that contains the following ominous paragraphs: WASHINGTON — The Obama administration will call for increased oversight […]

The U.S. Financial Sector Is Done, for a Decade

So I said in this unusually pessimistic appearance on Scott Horton’s radio show. This AIG bonus bill has really sealed the deal for me. Suppose you were put in charge of AIG. How would you structure compensation packages to attract the right people who would actually turn the company around? Why, I think you would […]

Two Promising Developments During the Obama Years?

I am pretty pessimistic now about the next 8 years. (Yes I think Obama will be re-elected. FDR had no problem with re-election, and the economy was awful. But he was an amazing orator and could blame it on the previous Republican buffoon. Same today.) However, I do want to point to two positive trends, […]

The Bailout Nobody Talks About…

…is of the ratings agencies. Seriously, if you had to pick a single group who were most directly responsible not in terms of moral culpability, but in terms of their huge intellectual mistakes being directly tied to the housing bubble…well it’s gotta be the ratings agencies. I couldn’t find how many total employees Moody’s, Fitch, […]

Blast From the Past: Murphy Interviewed on "I Object!"

Wow I stumbled across these (1, 2, 3) on YouTube. It was from an interview I gave a while ago, sometime in early 2008 I believe. Note that I follow Ilana Mercer on Part 1 about 10:20 into it. We talk about the financial crisis, mortgage market, etc.